Iraq starts excavation of suspected Islamic State mass grave

Local authorities are working with the judiciary, forensic investigations, Iraq's Martyrs' Foundation, and the directorate of mass graves to carry out the excavation of the site of a sinkhole in al-Khafsa, south of the northern city of Mosul, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported Sunday. In this image taken from video provided by Rudaw TV, an aerial view shows a sinkhole at the Khasfa site near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where authorities have begun excavating a mass grave believed to contain thousands of victims of the Islamic State (IS) Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. The war against ISIS officially ended in March 2019, when U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the eastern Syrian town of Baghouz, which was the last sliver of land the extremists controlled.